RONALDvd#22...

[Wiz]

Ok, i think this board is finally to the breaking point with a single member. Ronald, you have single-handedly raised the point that member status should be eliminated. posting 1 useless post was enough, but you have now posted 7 of them.

I know i should not be so negative here, but enough is enough. I'm not saying leave the board, but just refrain from posting useless nonsense.

Socalgal, please help us here.

[SysOpt]

He's gone. If he registers again today it won't matter because Earthweb is blocking his ISP on Monday.

Scott

[chipbgt]

Its kind of a shame. I remember about two years ago (before you had to register) I came on here and acted like a complete jerk to some of the regulars. Well, I like to think I grew up and learned that the people hear are serious and mature, and hopefully He/She will learn that and maybe one day come back and contribute.

When you dial up to a ISP, arent you assigned a random IP? I'm a little confused on how that all works.

[SysOpt]

I agree, but he is too much of a distraction. We're really fortunate to have a low number of incidents like that - very low. I even posted to his first "useless post" thread. Those things are ok now and then. But then he proceeded to riddle the forum with junk.

As for the ISP, we're banning his entire ISP - it's in the Netherlands and it's unlikely that we have multiple forum users from that ISP.

Scott

[This message has been edited by SysOpt (edited 01-23-2000).]

[chipbgt]

A lot of it stemmed from being able to see how many posts you have..maybe if you kept the member status levels, but took away the ability to see "exaclty" how many posts you have, but just an aproximation? like this:

MntSnow: ultimate member, +1000 posts
Chipbgt: Senior Member, +500 posts
Wiz: Member, +32 posts

but maybe that would cause people to post like crazy just go get to the next level. Just a thought.....I'm frozen in the house, got no where to go but sysopt http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[richamies]

How about we ditch the member status altogether? We all know who the good guys are....

Or change it so member status is set at Sysopts discretion.

Just a suggestion.

[socalgal]

Personally, I feel there is no need to change or ditch the Member status. I think the Member majority likes it, as the majority voted on it.

Of course, I don't think it's right for someone to post just to up their count, as Ronald did; likewise I don't think one person should be the cause of tearing down our Member status.

Like some others have said previously, we know who they are. But to cause such a disruption of this Board as Ronald caused will not be tolerated. Ronald got himself banned by abusing this Board and the good will of the Admins and the Members alike.

[daveleau]

Thanks for handling this in such a civilized manor moderators. At anandtech I was banned b/c I have a Yahoo account. This stemmed from the Guy Under The Bridge and his imposters. It works if you just ban one guy instead of hundreds.
Dave

[Strip]

Could someone please explain how this member-thingy works? I am... what? "Junior Memer"? what does that mean? I've read the FAQ up and down many... too many times now w/o finding anything.

Edit» Heeey? I don't even have a word at all before my "member".


[This message has been edited by Strip (edited 01-23-2000).]

[SysOpt]

Thing is, if I dropped the member status, would it change the member? Their personality will be the same and the'll find some other reason to be an ***. The member status is in place to give those who spend their lives here http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif some recognition, not to punish those who don't. And it certainly doesn't mean that one member is that much smarter or more knowledgeable than another, simply that the higher the status, the more time they put in on this particular board. That's it. Not really a reason for someone to flip out and spend all their waking moments posting **** messages just to raise their level. It's not like there is a cracker jack prize involved when they get to the bottom of THIS box. And maybe I missed it, but I didn't see that Ronaldvd#22 was interested in raising his level so much as he was interested in just screwing around trying to grow really large pointless threads.

And no offense to all of our international members (who are ALWAYS welcome here), but most of the problems I have had either with this UBB software or the previous edition of the board originated from people outside of the U.S. I don't know if they do it because they feel absolutely no fear of any punishment, etc., from their actions or what, but it's a bit annoying. On the upside, though, many use obscure foreign ISP's that are easily banned when need be with little or no impact on innocent bystanders (which is, thankfully, rare).

Scott



[This message has been edited by SysOpt (edited 01-23-2000).]

[chipbgt]

....There SHOULD be though.....I am running low on temporary tattoos http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif

I guess maybe the best way to handle large amounts of nonsense posts from a single person is for no one to respond to them, period. If we all did that (and I take blame for NOT doing this in the past) that would send a message http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[yaroa]

I think that once you feel that you belong in this family (you'll know when), you wont care much about status.

[BillyB]

We do have at least 1 other member from the Netherlands...Andy_L...I was looking for an inexpensive video card and he sent me one of his for the price of shipping($3.20)...if anyone remembers seeing that series of posts.

[socalgal]

chipbgt, I agree. I think your suggestion to ignore is the best response that one can make. Silence can come through loud and clear. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif

yaroa, I can't tell you how many posts I have right now, and it really doesn't matter much to me. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif It doesn't seem all that important in the scheme of things.

Like Scott said, the number of posts is not an indicator of knowledge or insight into things computer, but an indication of the length of time one has spent here.

I really believe this is the best hardware site on the Net as to the maturity, unselfishness, insight, wisdom and knowledge (and sense of humor too http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif ) of the Members who post here, regardless of sex, age, nationality, or number of posts.

I consider this my place my second home and I'll do my best to see that this Board's good status isn't tarnished.

[This message has been edited by socalgal (edited 01-23-2000).]

[Serge]

Banning whole ISP's is not a solution.. what if you get user from mindspring who also has access to 5 free isp dial-ups... anyway I didn't read up much on the issue with that guy's posting but it seemed to me that the only way to go was to find out UBB's flaw he was exploiting and ask the (ubb) creators to patch it.

[Dave_H]

I commend Scott and Socalgal on the way the situation was handled. Thank-You http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

Edit- Just a thought, could you assign one member with a different statis like
"Problem Member" or "I'm a Jerk". -Edit

[This message has been edited by Dave_H (edited 01-24-2000).]

[SysOpt]

Of course the best solution is not to ban an ISP, but as I explained, because his is an obscure ISP located in the Netherlands, the chances that more than one of our 6,000 registered users will use that ISP is remote at best. I have to ban the entire ISP because the user likely uses a dial-up account which dynamically assigns an IP - I can't block a single IP.

If it was a Mindspring, Earthlink, AOL user, etc, the situation would be different. In which case Dave_H's excellent suggestion might come into play http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif.

BTW, as far as fixing the bug he exploited, the one he exploited was that of human free will which I rather enjoy, personally. He posted about 8 completely useless threads in a single day, including comments like "hi, I'm your new Editor-in-Chief!", etc. Dozens of users complained, so the threads were deleted. I don't yet know what caused the messup where the poster's name appeared as the subject, the date as the name, etc., or whether or not that happened as a result of mischief, but I will find out and if someone is responsible for intentionally exploiting a bug and tampering with our system the bug will be fixed and the issue will be handed over to EarthWeb's law firm.

Scott


[This message has been edited by SysOpt (edited 01-24-2000).]

[Wiz]

Thank you so much. and chip, i'm pushing 250 posts! lol. Romulus2's UBB board has the # of posts along with their loaction underneath the member status.

[Mntsnow]

Thank you Scott for handling the situation in such a "clean" manner. I personally would like to thank you and the other members of SysOpt, As You and THEY make SysOpt the BEST place on the net!

Mntsnow

[deep_sky]

i like dave_h's suggestion. it's ppl like ronald who make this board look bad and i for one do not want the board to look bad. this is the place where i can commune with like-minded people and share in an ever-growing knowledge base and i would not want it polluted with junk. ronald was just wasting server space with his useless threads.

i have noticed that there are more and more wierd errors happening on the board lately. things like posting to one thread and finding it in another, getting no more disk space errors when attempting to post, information going in the wrong fields of a post, and probably other that i have not encounted yet. i wonder what is going on?

[Eli]

I personally think the ranking system is a good idea, but I would like to see the amount of time the person has been a member taken into account in some way. For example, you can't become a member yet if you've only been around like a month, regardless of the number of posts. I've been here (probably fairly quiet at times) for around a year now, and that guy was on pace to pass my number of posts in just another couple of weeks. Some of us (most, hopefully) would rather hit the milestones by asking and hopefully answering questions.

[jad1097]

I personaly do not see what the big deal is about member stats. I do however have to agree with Eli. I joined sysopt in November and she joined in Febuary of last year and I am right on her tail as far as #of posts are concerned. I just have more time on my hands since I do the MR. mom thing now before going to school this summer/fall.
Maybe if the member status just reflected the posts made in tech areas of the forum instead of all ares that would be more fair. Or 3 months plus so many post =member or something? Must be a member for six months before etc..

Just my thoughts.

[AuraEdge]

Something tells me I think I'm lucky I was AFK for the last 2 days...

[bdog]

I want to thank the SysOpt staff for the way this situation was handled, and I would like to cast my vote to keep things the way they are. I like the member status the way it is.

[chipbgt]

IM gonna agree again. We shouldnt let a few bad apples spoil the best bushel of apples on the internet.


I made a metaphor!

[yammahoppy]

way to go scott

glad they kept you around to keep this place the best one the net!

[yammahoppy]

way to go scott and the rest of the sysopt crew.


keep up the great work http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[Ed_S]

I like Dave_H's suggestion of "problem member" status. Possibly email them notification & why. This would give someone a chance to get their act together & stay.
Even with that label, we can all tell if it was sincere & worthy of response. And this would warn newbies that the problem member's advise was suspect.

Also, Wiz mentioned other UBB's showing the post count & location along with memmber status. I like it, and it's gone over well elsewhere! How about it?

Ed

[Banti]

Could someone e-mail me with a description what he did? All of his latest threads have been deleted. I do not want to get thrown out, by stepping on the wrong toes... I stop checking the board at 5pm EST (2pm PST) and I missed out on the havoc.


Thanks,
Banti

[daveleau]

I like both DaveH's and Ed_S's suggestions. Host does the post count thing. I like it.
Dave

[Romulus2]

I activated the optional UBB facility which shows a member's post count and location beneath his status and username on the Romulus2 BBS because I saw that that feature had been well received on HOST Club.

The slight downside is that it may encourage that small number of participants in any BBS who seem perversely obsessed with the number of their posts, apparently regarding it as some sort of score. (I have to admit that I too have been guilty of that strange fascination with numbers on occasion http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif )As has been said many times, it is the quality of posts, not the quantity, which really matters.

Obsession apart, however, a tally of posts can serve as a rough indication of the degree of a member's participation and the location detail can be very useful in some cases. On balance, I feel the feature is a good one.

[This message has been edited by Romulus2 (edited 01-25-2000).]

[Thor]

Scott,

I'm wondering as I'm from Holland or at least I work in Holland and I do spend most of my time in my work and from there I come to this forum, but sometimes not very often I do access it from home. So my question is how can I know if I'm using the same ISP as
Ronald and not been blocked out from here..?

How does it work..? Do I get any msg on my screen that says that I'm not allowed to access this forum or what... and if I'm using the same ISP does that then meen that I have to change the ISP to be able to access this forum from home..?

Thor

[SysOpt]

Banti: Basically he posted about 7 threads in a single day to the General Discussion forum with subjects like "Useless posts", "Do you like girls?", "Am I related to Barney?".. Those weren't the exact threads but you get the point http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif. One message he posted in one of the threads was "I'm your new Editor-in-Chief, blah blah., etc."..

Thor: If you can post a message, you're not using the same ISP that he is.

-Scott

[Thor]

Thanks Scott http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

I will check that out when I'm back home http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

Thor

[Wiz]

not to mention he single-handedly destroyed a number of threads, dunno how though.

[Banti]

I seem to remember that he is not the only one that destroyed threads. Socalgal might remember more but the thrread was about painting your case black. The person who responded caused the thread info to get shifted, and the posts before this persons responce were deleted.


Wiz- I think the threads that were deleted are a bug in the software or one of those crazy flukes.


Banti

[Nanonyth]

Oi lads, I'm from the Netherlands...!!
Hope I won't be banned!
http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[alpha]

Hell, I'm just glad I wasn't eaten after I impersonated socalgal on MrC's!! (sorry again by the way!)

[Andy_L]

He (?) must have had a really obscure ISP here in the Netherlands, 'cause it would appear we have all escaped the axe?

[Bonehead]

If the Member status didn't come with the number of posts this thread would probably not been posted. ''AGE COMES WITH TIME'' So the member(..) status should come with the date you subscribed as a member. If you're a member for a long time you should become eventually 'Senior Member' or 'Veteran Member' or what you else come up with for that matter...

Note: We all know how easy it is to post, just to get to another member status... posts with simply no usuable tech-info (because that's this forum for, right?).


[This message has been edited by Bonehead (edited 01-26-2000).]

[Mntsnow]

Well Bonehead..(no pun intended really http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif) If what you say is true then there is a even bigger hole in your thought of "time" being the determination of status. As what would stop some one from signing up now asking 1 or two questions and then disapparing for a few months then coming back and posting (this keeps their name alive) and so forth. Sheeze if that was the case I would be even higher than I am today. But I think SysOpt is going about this the best way there is in a inperfect world. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif We all who visit here on a regular basis KNOW who and what to trust.

Just my 2 cents (even if it's not worth that much! http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif)

Mntsnow

[Wiz]

i think we should not allow junior members to post links to sites. This has nothing to do with Ronald, but there are alot of people ocming here to spam us and leave. and thats my 2 cents.

[Wiz]

i missed all but 3 posts that were destroyed. and he claimed all of them

[hydraulic]

well I can't say that I do or don't agree with you wiz but you have to admit there is alot of junior members that have as much and more experiace then other members (no disrespect intended ) I personally have learned more at this forum then all of the other sites combined thanks to all of you.

[Chef Mark]

Well said Hydraulic, I have been lurking here for quite a few weeks trying to get a feel for the nature of the board. I just registered so that I could post this message.

Many of the junior members seem to have quite a bit of knowledge and it would be a shame to limit them.

I for one like the member status.

Just my 2 cents worth. Thanks for the great job SoCalgal and Scott.

[JeffD78]

I'd like to second (third? fourth? whatever..) the idea that this place is just fine the way it is. The member status is fine the way it is, it gives me a good idea whose answers will be more reliable. And you can also usually tell a person's age and intelligence by their choice of username, the way they word their posts and simply their basic grammar skills. (punctuation, capitalization, etc...) I've only been around since shortly before Christmas, but I am also a regular at several other boards, primarily car-related, that have more than their fair share of trolls and flame wars. I was very impressed with the quality of the posts and the people on this board when I first showed up, and still am to this day.

In deference to Scott and Socalgal, there really is no way to keep things like Ronald from happening, especially if the person is determined. If it comes down to banning an entire ISP because of one person, then so be it. One of the other boards I visit has banned all AOL IPs, and the message you get when you try to post from an AOL IP tells you not only that you can't, but also lists the usernames of the people that caused the ban of AOL. Came in kinda handy when the only access I had was through AOL. I take the fifth on any more info about that last statement. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

Time for me to shut my mouth...
Later.

[Richard_Cranium72]

It's not broke, so don't fix it. Going great I like it I love it I want some more of it.. Come to think of it, some of my posts have been past the point of drivel, am I criminal in my actions?,, let me know what to limit and I'll act in accordance.. DrVette

[Barney]

I am the one to blame.I did things I shouldn't have done.I think I am very lucky for getting a second chance!

[chipbgt]

You might want to close this thread also since we dont seem to get the point that the discussion is over.